A Regrettable Deviation From the Principles of Democracy

Written:Written May 10 (23), 1917Published:Published May 25 (12), 1917 inPravdaNo. 55.

      Published according to the newspaper text.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1964,

      Moscow,Volume 24,

      pages385-387.Translated:Isaacs BernardTranscription\Markup:B. BagginsandD. WaltersPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      1999

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.

Today’sIzvestiacarries a report of the
      meeting of the Soldiers’ Section of the Soviet of Workers’ and
      Soldiers’ Deputies. This meeting, among other things,

“consideredthe question of whethersoldiers could perform
      the duties of militiamen.The Executive Committee proposed
      to the meeting a resolution to the following effect:“Inview of the fact that soldiers must perform theirdirectduty, the Executive Committee of the Soviet of
      Soldiers’ Deputiesdeclared against the soldiers’
      participationin the militia, and proposes that all
      soldiers serving in the militiabe immediately returned to
      their units.’“Aftera brief debate, the resolution was passed with anamendmentpermitting soldiersdischarged from
      active serviceaswell as wounded soldiersto
      perform militia duties.”

“consideredthe question of whethersoldiers could perform
      the duties of militiamen.The Executive Committee proposed
      to the meeting a resolution to the following effect:

“Inview of the fact that soldiers must perform theirdirectduty, the Executive Committee of the Soviet of
      Soldiers’ Deputiesdeclared against the soldiers’
      participationin the militia, and proposes that all
      soldiers serving in the militiabe immediately returned to
      their units.’

“Aftera brief debate, the resolution was passed with anamendmentpermitting soldiersdischarged from
      active serviceaswell as wounded soldiersto
      perform militia duties.”

Itis to be regretted that the exact texts of the resolution and
      the amendment have not been published. More regrettable still is
      the fact that the Executive Committee proposed and the meeting
      adopted a resolution which is a complete abandonment of the
      fundamental principles of democracy.

Thereis hardly a democratic party in Russia that does not
      include in its programme a demand for the universal arming of
      the people as a substitute for the standing army. There is
      hardly a Socialist-Revolutionary or a Menshevik Social-Democrat
      who would dare oppose such a demand. The trouble is that it has
      become a “custom” “nowadays”, under the cover of high-sounding
      phrases about ’revolutionary democracy”, to accept democratic
      (the more so socialist) programmes “in principle”, but reject
      them in practice.

Tooppose the participation of soldiers in the militia on the
      ground that “soldiers must perform their direct duty” is to
      forget completely the principles of democracy andinvoluntarily,
      unconsciously, perhaps, to adopt the idea of a standing
      army. The soldier is a professional; his direct duty isnotsocial service at all—such is the point of
      view of those who are for a standing army. It is not a
      democratic point of view. It is the point of view of the
      Napoleons. It is the point of view of old supporters of the old
      regime and the capitalists, who dream of an easy transition
      backward, from a republic to a constitutional monarchy.

Ademocrat is opposed to such a view on principle. Soldiers’
      participation in the militia amounts to breaking down the wall
      that separates the army from the people. It amounts to breaking
      with the accursed “barrack” past where a special group of
      citizens, detached from and opposed to the people, were trained,
      “knocked into shape” and drilled for the “direct task” of
      following only a military profession. Soldiers’ participation in
      the militia is a cardinal issue involving the re-education of
      the “soldiers” into militiamen citizens, the re-education of the
      population into public-spirited armed citizens. Democracy will
      remain an idle deceitful phrase, or merely a half-measure,
      unless theentirepeople is given a chance immediately
      and unqualifiedly to learn how to handle arms. Without the
      systematic, regular, and wide spread participation of the
      soldiers in the militia this will be impossible.

Theobjection may be raised that soldiers should not bedeflectedfrom theirdirectduties. No one
      said they should. To make a point of this is as ridiculous as
      saying that a physician engaged at the bedside of a patient who
      is dangerously ill has no right to leave that bedside in order
      to go and hand in his voting-paper, or that a worker engaged in
      production, which admittedly must not be interrupted, has no
      right to go away to exercise his political rights until he is
      relieved by another worker. Such arguments would simply he
      frivolous and even unscrupulous.

Participationin the militia is one of the cardinal and basic
      principles of democracy, one of the most important guarantees of
      freedom. (We might add, parenthetically, that there is no better
      way of enhancing the purely military strength and capacity of
      the army than by substituting the universal arming of the people
      for the standing army, and by using the soldiers to instruct the
      people; this method has always beenused and always will be used
      in every truly revolutionary war.) The immediate, unqualified,
      universal organisation of a people’s militia and the widest
      participation of soldiers in that militia are in the vital
      interests of the workers, peas ants, and soldiers, that is to
      say, the vast majority of the population, a majority that is not
      interested in safeguarding the profits of the landowners and the
      capitalists.